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| Snow at the cabin! This was Bob maybe 10 years ago |
It’s the end of the year 2017!
It has left me with a lot of memories both good and bad. I’m sorry I
haven’t blogged more often to document some of them. I’m getting old and the
short-term memories slip away more quickly!
I do love to go back and read the “so many years ago” memories on
Facebook. This past week Kathi posted a blog from many years ago about one of
our very memorable family Christmases on her Country Chicken Girl blog.
We were
laughing about it and remembering some more recent Christmas adventures that
should be documented! So I have decided to take a stab at it. Kathi wrote her
story about her first Christmas with the Manvilles--kind of from a newcomers
point of view. My story is about a more recent Christmas adventure. I believe
it took place 2 years ago. We (at least me, Bob when he was alive, and whoever
of our family that was coming for Christmas that year) always planned to spend
it at “the cabin”. It was not a simple “over the river and through the woods”
type of trip to get there. It is at least a 2.5 mile ride in on snowmobiles or
other tracked vehicles through snow covered meadows, draws, several kinda steep
hills, up in the trees, and across a creek that is usually frozen and covered
with snow. We have to haul all our presents, food, clothing and sometimes
gasoline in on sleds pulled by the snowmobiles. Oh, and don’t forget computers,
and other electronic devices.
On this particular year, only 2 of Danny’s boys, Danny, Kathi and
I were in Walden for Christmas. Danny insisted we spend it at their house since
he had to plow snow at the bowling alley and do some other chores before he
could get away. He figured he could only leave no earlier than 4:00 and it
would be getting dark by 4:30. He did not want to try going in that late in big
snow! The rest of us insisted we could
go up earlier with Chris’s new snowmobile and get everything in to the cabin
before then and Danny could get whatever we couldn’t fit when he got there. He
still insisted it was not a good plan but was out voted.
Chris, Colton and I headed out from Walden to the end of the
plowed road about 2:30. We had 1 snow machine, some of the food and our
belongings plus Chris’s Labrador puppy. It was cold with blowing snow but the
sun was out when we got there. We unloaded Chris’s machine and he headed out to
get the sled we needed to haul in our supplies. He took the puppy with
him. We kept a sled at the neighbor’s
ranch which was probably 1/2 mile away. Meanwhile Colton and I organized all
the things to get loaded. Oh, and of course there is very poor to no cell
service up there. We could not see where Chris was and could not call town to
see if Danny and Kathi had left either.
So after about an hour and no Chris we
were pretty worried but had no way of looking for him. Finally Danny and Kathi showed up
with 2 more snowmobiles and all the rest of the stuff. We got them unloaded and
Danny went off to look for Chris. He had been stuck with the sled. Anyway they
came back with 1 sled and the dog and as predicted by Danny it was getting
dark. We loaded the sled with the necessities for the night and sent Danny,
Kathi, Chris and the dog into the cabin. Kathi had the sled and dog, I think
there was another sled involved that they had to abandon so that Danny and
Chris could break trail as nobody had been that way yet and the snow was deep
and powder. They also left Kathi and the puppy stuck in the middle of a meadow about
halfway there. They could break trail and come back for her.
Colton and I had no idea what was going on. At least we had a
heated pickup to wait in. Meanwhile Kathi was out in the cold blowing snow in the dark wrestling a puppy that wanted to run in the snow but it was too deep! None of us knew what was happening with each
other! There was nothing Colton and I
could do as time marched on. Should we go back to town and get help from my
nephews? Should we stay put? We couldn’t call anyone so we gave them until
8:00 PM and then we would go back to
town! Yes, it was several hours ticking
by! Colton took a nap, I was reading my
book, and Kathi was still sitting out in the meadow after 1 1/2 hours not
knowing where they were!
Finally about
7:30pm Colton got a message from Chris
that they had just made it to the cabin!
They had to go back to get Kathi, the sled and the puppy. Then they
unloaded the 1 sled and came back for us and the rest of the stuff. As I recall
they had to leave the other sled where it was until the next day but had to go
out and get everything off it. It was close to midnight by the time we got
everything there and got some dinner!
Needless to say, we will probably listen to Danny before we ever attempt
a late afternoon expedition to the cabin again. Bob also always tried to get us
to be smarter but some of us never learn, I guess. I say this because there are
several more Cabin Christmas adventures that need documenting but they will
have to wait.
*Note: This year Skyler and his wife, Kara, Danny, Kathi and I were the only ones here in Walden for Christmas. Skyler and I talked about going up to the cabin but decided not to even mention it to Danny! We had a nice quiet fun time at Danny and Kathi's house.
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| Digging out the snow machines and sleds! |
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